One thing was clear at the Cannes Lions advertising festival last week: The intense focus on the lack of diversity on Madison Avenue is here to stay. And while the industry is starting to show signs of early progress, fixing the deep-seated issues is an entirely different matter.

In the wake of sexism and racism scandals at major advertising companies in recent years, firms seem to be more aware than ever of the need to address the problem and move past the “Mad Men” days. Multiple panels at Cannes focused on gender equality and sexist advertising, and companies have renewed their commitments to inclusion programs and better hiring practices.

One area that’s starting to show progress is recruiting, with recruiters saying there have been more requests to find women and minorities in recent months.

“I have more clients saying they would prefer a woman” for a particular role, Carol Vick, a recruiter for creative positions in the advertising industry, said in an interview. “I am definitely getting a lot more requests for diverse candidates, and that’s a beautiful thing.”

There has been particular attention paid to the lack of top female leaders in agencies’ creative departments—the divisions responsible for crafting a client’s campaigns. Ms. Vick said that in a database she keeps of more than 3,000 creative professionals, only about a third are women and fewer than 100 are African-American.

While there is a “bigger sense of urgency” to promote diversity within agencies, the efforts need to extend beyond recruitment, said Anne-Marie Marcus, chief executive officer of Marcus St. Jean, a New York recruiting firm that specializes in the ad business.

“We’re recruiting more women, but we also need to promote them and create an environment where they can be successful,” Ms. Marcus said in an interview.

Those cultural transitions can be more difficult to realize. Amy Hoover, president of Talent Zoo, a recruiting firm focused on the advertising, marketing and media fields, said creative departments have historically had a culture that was a “turnoff” to many women.

“There’s still a boy’s club feel that clings to it sometimes,” Ms. Hoover said in an interview. “I have high hopes that the system will be cracked sooner rather than later. I don’t think it has yet…If you look at the real powerhouses, there are still very few women in the top role.”

The high-profile lawsuit has “made every agency kind of re-evaluate how inclusive their culture is,” said Kat Gordon, the founder of the 3% Conference, a movement dedicated to building a business case for more female creative directors in advertising. “Agencies are absolutely seeing diversity and inclusion as an imperative and they’re putting muscle behind it.”

Pressure on Madison Avenue is mounting to stamp out advertising that objectifies women. Advertising executive Madonna Badger has launched a campaign to persuade her peers that ads exploiting women can be damaging to business. Photo: Carl's Jr.

Last week’s festivities in the south of France included panel discussions such as “Sex, Lies and Advertising,” during which advertising executive Madonna Badger argued that sex sells sex, not brands. There was also a session called “A Little Impatience Can Do Us Good—the Fight for Gender Equality,” which featured several speakers discussing how all industries need to do more to fix the problem. John Seifert, chief executive of WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather and the moderator of that panel, said that his agency is now “maniacally focused on gender equality.”

It’s important to note that while the topic of gender equality seems to be getting more attention, racial diversity is much further behind. Ms. Vick said she has “had a few clients that have asked me for anybody that’s not a white male.” But it’s “more challenging” to find, say, African-American candidates because the industry has done a “dismal” job of luring more of them into the ad business broadly, she said.

One company that’s been more successful is digital agency 360i. During last week’s WSJ Media Mix podcast, 360i CEO Sarah Hofstetter said her agency is about 60% female and about a third nonwhite.

Despite the attention and the recruiting progress, Cannes also had its setbacks. An email sent by a third-party promotions company about an event sponsored by VaynerMedia and Thrillist Media Group at Cannes said the invite was for “attractive females and models only.” VaynerMedia and Thrillist executives apologized and said they didn’t know about the external vendor’s plans for the invite, Adweek reported.

Meanwhile, a Bayer ad that ran in Brazil and won an award at Cannes was accused of containing sexual undertones. The text of the ad read: “Don’t Worry Babe, I’m Not Filming This’.mov.” BBDO withdrew the Bayer ads created by its AlmapBBDO unit from the festival and Bayer has said the campaign won’t run again.

Many agencies are investing in unconscious bias training programs to help foster more inclusive environments and to improve the creative work.

Cook Ross, a consulting firm that specializes in diversity and inclusion issues, has experienced an “explosion” in business from the advertising industry over the past two years, said partner and chairperson, Leslie Traub. She attributes the pickup in business, in part, to a “lower tolerance” for inappropriate behavior in the ad industry, as well as a greater awareness of how biases affect the creative advertising. Every year, numerous ads get caught in the limelight for their sexist or controversial messages or images.

Ms. Traub said she works with agencies to examine what bias means and what the impact unconscious bias may have on an agency’s recruitment, culture and creative output, as well as coming up with strategies to mitigate those impacts.

“The more diversity we have, the more diverse eyes we have looking at that work and the better chance we have of catching” a stereotypical or insensitive image, Ms. Traub said.

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